Some of the things I wanted to do over this break rely on nice weather, and it has been anything but. Not like the deep snow and icebox temperatures of the northern tier and New England, but still, off-putting as far as yard work for Texas. On the other hand, I could pack the contents of my upright freezer in cardboard boxes and set them on the table on the back porch and they'll stay frozen for the brief time it takes to defrost. As I prepare to cook for company, I find walls of icy buildup in my way, and I didn't defrost this fall.

I gave some of the freezer contents to a friend when I realized dietary shifts would mean those foods will go uneaten by me. I might as well pass them along and make space. And I know there are some ham hocks in there somewhere - it's split pea soup weather and if I buy more, the ones I already have will meet them at the door as I bring in the groceries.

After an hour of tossing ice chunks into a bucket and mopping up water draining into a cake pan, the freezer is once again defrosted and organized. And I did (finally!) find the ham hocks. The compost pile will grow some this weekend if it warms enough to go out and do a little work around the yard. I have two 5-gallon lidded buckets next to the side door for kitchen waste, and this latest project uncovered some very elderly garden produce. The dog who was the worst about getting into the compost is the one that we lost last week, so I can start putting more stuff directly into the pile, not having to leave it in the intermediate bucket to break down until she'd leave it alone in the pile.

Calendars for the new year are in place. I forsee a lot of exciting changes coming in this next year. I hope everyone has a lot to report as January rolls around.

The electric mixer is whirring away in the kitchen as Himself makes cookies to take to his brother's family in Toronto tomorrow -- not that his brother is not up to generating his own cookie supply. In fact, we will almost certainly come home with a box of his fudge, reciprocity being the Only Way To Go.

The design and construction of the new kitchen, dining room and loo have decluttered our capital funds of a stunning sum, well north of twice as much as I expected, but I have to confess that it's money well spent. Now we have to knuckle under and deal with problems in the rest of the house -- starting with a paint job (Himself's office is still Pepto-Bismol pink). Also, a humidifier added to the furnace would make my sinuses much happier. How much will that cost, I wonder? Should I think of a number and double it?

On the decluttering front, I have decided that my mother-in-law's prized Wedgwood majolica (bright green, raised designs of vines and grape leaves) must find a new home. The dear lady died almost eight years ago and the settlement of her estate landed us with what remained of her fine china. Over seven years of possession, I have never used it. Not once. When I removed it from the china cabinet in the dining room, suddenly there was enough space for everything we do use. The True Sign ... Sigh.

I shall canvass the nieces, but I'm fairly sure that I'll get no takers -- the younger generation wisely prefers crockery that will go into the dishwasher without complaint. EBay, then.

Charmion, you can also check and see if Replacments.com has any of it and wants to buy more.

This morning I was going to make spritz (cookies) for the kids since my son arrives soon and the whole family will get together this weekend. But instead, I'll have him help me make them. We (the parental units) concluded recently that after several years of cooking Puerto Rican favorite dishes together at the holidays that we've managed to pass that baton. They will continue to be part of holiday meals, but we don't need as big a production to teach everyone. We'll find other dishes to teach them, and it dawned on me this morning that their favorite cookie is a good one to do now.

What a year - people with new jobs, people with new houses, people with remodeled houses, people with improved health, and much more.

I propose to let this thread continue - a while back I took the year out of the title to this end - but one issue that sometimes arises as threads get longer is that they are slow to load on portable devices. If several people have this problem, let me know and I can reconsider. In the meantime, if you open the main Mudcat page and see this thread in the list, if you click on the number to the right of the thread title that will open it chronologically from the beginning but with only 50 posts and links to the rest of the pages. You can click on that last link to get to the current page. OR, you can click on that little blue d next to the number and that will open the thread at the most recent post and read in descending order.

I have a few articles that I return to for inspiration, and The Tyranny of the Heirloom from the New York Times is at the top of the list. I love the philosophy espoused in Don Aslett'sClutter's Last Stand (I linked to the author and his many books on cleaning and decluttering).

A friend of mine lives in a small (~1000sf) house that recently needed to be completely emptied in order to take up the warped wood floors and replace the sub floors. Much went into the small 1-car garage, the rest was packed up and moved to storage until the job was complete. My friend now has a new lease on his house - he is setting up each room with just as much furniture and decorating as it needs and is donating the unneeded furnishings and decor. It's difficult to let go under normal circumstances, but taking a fresh look at everything has helped him make the house look roomier and made rooms (like his largest bedroom that serves as his office and art studio) an efficient space, and he will no longer be tripping over possessions in order to get into the room and try to use it.

I continue to move items into my sun room where I list eBay items from. The bench beside the door is stacked with boxes ready to ship. I'd like to use the bench for sitting, but right now it's higher purpose is to help me clear these things from the house and make a little income in the process. The proceeds in my PayPal account pay a couple of bills a month and I use it for things like paying online postage and making donations to charitable organizations. The goal is to not have to transfer bank money into PayPal, but always the opposite.

It feels like we're entering darker times, when charities will be strained because of new tax legislation in the U.S. affecting the deductible nature of donations. Take care of yourselves, and if you have the ability, please continue supporting good organizations if even if you can't deduct the donation.

To close on a positive up note (this is a music site, after all!) you might enjoy this story from Weekend Edition Sunday on National Public Radio. Twitter Wants To Help You Welcome 2018 With One Climactic Musical Moment. It started with Phil Collins recommending the timing of one of his songs so the drums hit right at midnight. What a great idea - the Guy Lombardo "Auld Lang Syne" is as hackneyed as they come. Looks like a good thread topic. . .

Thanks for maintaining this thread, Acme. All through this tumultuous year, I have found it a useful place to pound out my dread and frustration, and to brag when I have accomplished a mission, however trivial.

I refuse to believe that neatness is trivial, but some of the steps I take to get there sure can look that way.

I have a tentative taker for the Wedgwood majolica, thank God; Himself's sister-in-law nibbled gently at the bait and may be convinced to take ten fruit nappies and a frankly gorgeous 12-inch serving bowl off my hands. The rest, I think, can be safely consigned to the church bazaar in the Spring.

It's New Year's Eve and a Sunday, and so it is washday. I like to start the new year with clean towels and a clean bed.

Great minds think alike - bed linens changed, and for a while the down comforter is in place. I didn't use it at all last year. We still have a big family event - probably tomorrow - it'll be our xmas and new year rolled into one. I have to keep cleaning and clearing, wrapping, and putting things away. I don't have many decorations out this year, I do need to make two xmas stockings (we've used temporary ones for a couple of years for repeat visitors - that writing is on the wall.) The goal is to have things ready for the event and afterward be able to put away the few ornaments and the house is finished with the holidays. I'll turn off the dusk-to-dawn sensors for the outside lights after the family event, then take the lights in when it warms up a little.

The big box stores put storage containers on sale this time of year but I've managed to declutter enough that I disaccessioned several of those bins, stacked for now in a little-used closet. No more buying bins. I'm not ready to get rid of them, they help when it comes to sorting (whatever - fabric, crafting items, paper, etc.). I have to sort the craft room soon, but for now I'll use the bins to stash things piled on the bed so I have two guest rooms.

I was supposed to leave for Ohio this AM, but lingering crud-bugs have held me up. I'm hoping the antibiotics get me underway by Friday!

I've been "enjoying" a premature opportunity to bid farewell to more PA items as I focus on what to truck out in May. I always did like pre-grieving inevitable goodbyes; this round seems to be about furniture-repurposing projects I'd have loved to have done, that we will definitely never be able to do.

It turns out that it's enough for me that I've enjoyed finding out/planning how to have done them. (There are only so many clear-coated antiques I can put in my garden-- and the Ohio house can't possibly hold more pieces than I've already planned.) So, more to leave for the parish yard sale.

One item that was hard to decide about was a much-loved antique rocker my SIL gave me 30 years ago. She had wanted it back at one point so she got first refusal. It's a reddish-stained oak, someone's homemade craftsman knockoff of a well-known type. (I can tell because it's not quite square.) She and I decided together to avoid the Californy shipping hassle and donate it to the church. Afyer we decided that, at first I envisioned it in one particular church location... but I have some fabric that's almost a dead match for some church hangings, and it will be a lovely addition to the Chapel that houses the Columbarium, for folks to set a spell with the memories of loved ones inurned there. I'll add a donors' plaque and a rug to go under it, to keep it in the Chapel and out of the yard sale. There's an almost-matching companion chair we're also leaving, to pair with it, that also sees occasional duty for bishops' visits. (We've talked for YEARS about a non-pew sitting spot in there!!!)

In a recent spelunking of an upstairs closet, I found some of the priscilla curtains I've loved so much here in this old house that are no longer available; some of the downstairs priscillas may be too old to wash once more, but I think the found ones can replace any that do fall apart. They are spead out around in two adjoining rooms, so the color doesn't have to match perfectly. One set is ivory and one is white. (A tan dye job should make them all work well enough.) As long as I have enough intact for the living room, that works!

I was able to fill out a truck-sized packing list after several relaxed chats with Hardi, about priorities-- we love those long drives where we dream about retirement dates we still can't plan. I'm wondering if our final move will happen while we still have two cars to deal with, in which case a pod would be better than a last truckload.... or whether by then we'll be down to one vehicle. (I do like the idea of a pod we can take our time UNloading, but I'm sure keeping em ain't cheap.)

2017 was a good year, I managed to clear out my house and sell it. Had an epic moving sale which went very well, aside from all the other hauling-off and selling and donating. Did keep a group of things in storage that are worth keeping. My goal for 2018 is going to be to organize and thin that herd too, but can't work at it daily since I'm roaming around the country, seeing the sights. As far as my little house on wheels, still a bit too much stuff, but mostly there is a place for everything and everything is stowed away, at least on travel days.

Anyway, Happy New Year, clutter-busters. Hope everyone is able to simplify or optimize or whatever your personal goal may be.

People seems to do more shopping over the holiday break. I had a number of small items ship yesterday and more today. No going outside in this cold, might as well check out eBay, apparently! I have quite a few decommissioned but functional electronic items to list and now seems a really good time to do it since I'm not going out in the cold, especially with this new year sinus infection. First bill of the year was a co-pay at the doctor's office.

Patty, you had a great year with everything you managed to do. I'd love to hear where you're traveling (and I hope you're staying warm right now - there aren't many places in the U.S. this week that are comfortable for mobile dwellings!)

It is definitely a prime time for selling things. I sent off a good many tools, gadgets, and stereo components to guys snowed in on the Great Plains and upper Midwest last year. I could just picture them down in the basement workshop, bored by not being able to get out and do much.

I'm in the Rio Grande Valley where the weather has been nasty, palm fronds are blowing off the trees, constant cold rain and drizzle, but at least not below pipe-freezing threshold. I know everyone else is suffering worse, except for those in the far Southwest. Will shove off towards Arizona in a couple days when the hard freezes let up.

(Have not used computer since 23 December.) Montreal: The following is a note I wrote to friends about our craze life:

"Since John gave me near half a day of COLD labour for which I am beyond grateful, I have spent a week in Montreal - to spend time with Robin, who was away for most of that time, and the house was beyond terrible. We managed to get back to Bancroft in time for the Christmas Dinner at the Legion and a quiet week of recuperation for him, which was not enough time. We came safely back to Montreal on First, to frozen pipes and a 34F house. Put on as many little electric heaters as the circuits would hold and went to supper. It was almost up to 40 when we returned.

I was going to leave on Tuesday - enough is too much! - but it was snowing when we went out for BF - after sleeping with ALL my clothes on, including my coat. I called Harvest Moon (in Bancroft) while we were at BF, to see what it was doing there: "If you are safe there, stay there!" said Arlene. Darn!

By late afternoon, the house was about 58. (It warmed up outside.) How could he have lived here since 1982... But he had only been camping out - work has been his life and I am in the way in a sense. He is glad to have me but this house has never been a priority ....... He is trying ---VERY!

Last night, he got enough heat in the upstairs BR for a comfortable night! There is actually some baseboard heat up there! The LR is still 59! I sit with a cube heater on my feet and read or watch TV or use computer, with a throw on my legs ... Resigned to being here until Saturday when we will be between snows, or so the forecasts say. Is it really only Wednesday? I feel like I have been here at least a week!

I intend to stay in Bancroft for an extended period. At least there I can be warm - throw another log on the fire! Here, I feel like setting the house on fire. Robin did that as he was thawing the pipes; he "found" the rat's nest under floor of the kitchen counter. Arghhh!

The saga of the battery continues: Car would not start after Christmas - at -30. R warmed up the old battery in the K sink full of HOT water and boosted the NEW one. He believes there is a bad connection somewhere but he is not looking for it in this cold. He bought a booster pack. (I used to have a really good one but he needed it somewhere else and...)

How can someone so brilliant be so dumb, so totally disorganized. I wonder how he has managed to live 70 years with so little attention to self care or comfort. He cheerfully agrees!

Gee, I was thinking I might go to the Atwater Market (about 6 blocks away) but R went out ... - Oh! He has not taken my car... but he will need it to get to his truck (elsewhere!), with the battery for it which someone caused to go dead after being told to be sure and close the door or the battery will run down... He brought the battery here yesterday for TLC ... It was a new battery...

Then he came down from upstairs where he had been texting, etc in the warm BR! Now he has gone off ----but he forgot the battery for the truck!

So, here I sit... I delight in Charmion's new kitchen!!! And in mrzzy's success! and whoever I have missed... May we each have a de-cluttering new year! And stay warm! or cool, as the case may be.

We are truly that amazing group of women and men. I for one cannot begin to calculate the sheer volume of gone goods we might have amassed-- it would be fun some time to estimate and add up our respective cubic yards of goners!

Dorothy, it sounds like time to declutter yourselves of that house to someone who will come in and completely redo the insides. Clearly you're not going to be the ones to handle that. The smaller projects have sounded great, but that big one is too much!

A shower helped clear my head this morning as a sinus infection runs its course. It's sunny today so when it gets above freezing I'll walk over to the sheltered spot in the yard next to the greenhouse and stand for a few minutes with my face in the sun. That always feels therapeutic! No doubt I'll have dogs for company, they also enjoy that sunny nook (they're the ones who use it most of the time.)

Many rest areas along major highways have free WiFi connections. They may be slow, but they're there. My old phones were kind of clunky for connecting, but smart phones of the newest generations (in the last five years or so) are much better at finding and connecting.

I sent a note to Patty about some of my favorite spots to visit in South and west Texas.

I currently have 5 bags of books and 4 bags of clothes decluttered from Jeremiah's room.

I had a stressful recertification exam at work (which allows me to run assessments) and it was making me twitchy nervous so instead of doing the assessment right away I dumped two desk drawers that have been getting on my nerves right onto the top of my desk. I puttered, sorted and organized and ended up with some spectacular looking drawers and THEN I took the assessment. I passed on the first try (it will let you try different versions only so many times and then you are blocked for the year of administering that particular assessment). Hooray for decluttering relaxation!

I have an impressive collection of pens, post-its, paper clips and clasps.......all very neatly organized with all the other things that make my office run like a well oiled piece of machinery! :)

It's bitter cold here, many schools are already closed for tomorrow. Temperatures are predicted to be -20 to -30 with the windchill. Stay warm everyone!

I've wondered how it is for you and Max and some of our regular New England participants. On NPR this evening someone described seeing a man on skis being pulled down the street by a pickup - in South Carolina.

Susan, I hope your bug clears up enough so you can comfortably make your trip. There's nothing worse than trying to travel when all you want to do is curl up somewhere warm and take a nap.

Holiday ornaments are down, the lights are still in the yard until it warms enough to retrieve them comfortably. Photo cube is set up on the dining room table and I'll be using it for the next batch of eBay items. It's a cloth device that allows light to diffuse and give clear photos uncluttered with background objects or shadows. It folds down to about the size of a stack of dinner plates when compressed.

The new patio door was installed in the dining-room yesterday with maximum strain on a crew of three carpenters. The outside temperature at noon was about -13C and never clambered any higher than that, so the house was thoroughly chilled by the time they finished.

Everything went fairly swimmingly until the original garden door was extracted and the new door -- carefully measured not once, not twice, but four times -- DID NOT FIT. Close examination revealed that the two-by-four framing timbers were set in crooked, so the opening did not have four 90-degree angles, but instead was a parallelogram wider at the top than the bottom. Much agony ensued.

Every installation job of this type involves extensive shimming, so the shop materials brought for the job included one great big box of long, skinny wedges of wood used to square up the new door (or window, or cabinet) from side to side, and another great big box of thin, flat shingle-like pieces to be stacked on the sill-plate to bring the door to a certain height -- usually about an inch -- above the level of the interior floor. By the time they had finished, both boxes were empty and the crew chief had sent back for more.

To set the new door into the irregular opening, the carpenters had to left it into the frame, add shims, add more shims, take out some shims, put in more shims, check the level, and then take the whole thing apart and start again -- at least six times. They all went for lunch at about 2:00 p.m., then came back and resumed the attack. I offered tea and biscuits at 4:30, but they had finally achieved the correct degree of plumb-ness and level-ness and could not stop until the job was finished.

The entire job was supposed to take "a couple of hours". The crew arrived at about 9:15 a.m. and the last guy left at about 6:30 p.m., sweeping up plaster dust as he went.

We now have only the tiler to go, and I'm not sure if the kitchen contractor even knows where he is, let alone when he is prepared to tackle our backsplash and the holes in our floor. That will be the last major messy and expensive thing we do to this house for a long, long time.

Yesterday AM Newbie-Dog manifested that her cold and drafty corner was beyond her ability to stay warm, so we added layers under her at bedtime and into her corner she went... but I wasn't sure she'd handle the dropping temp and faster dropping wind chill so I came back down due to not falling asleep and added much more, thinking that if she used it instead of taking it apart to shred I'd spend some time today putting in a small chair to really get her off that drafty floor-- the one I can't stand to stand on myself.

Making the too-small seat big enough without making it all too big for the tight space where it will have to fit .... I had enough cheap quilts I'm not married to, and she's busy now making it her smells and lumps.

Later it will go into her corner for use tonight (and next winter), and the pretty and thick rug I folded for her will cover the bare, cold tile at the foot of the chair so that she has a cool-off spot, cuz she likes to alternate. The rug available hapoens to be GORGEOUS, and the chair is an old boudoir chair given to us years ago. I think using these for Her Highness's palace boudoir makes sense! The flounced are safe from chewing now that the crappies qhilt has gone on top to use and discard.

We've made a neat arrangement w a Mudcatter to take our old vinyl, and maybe auction off some of it to benefit Mudcat. My end on that today was researching best practices (and best shipping boxes), so that he and Hardi can work out the transfer while I'm in NoWiFiLand (sporadic access online) thru March 1. Hardi's next step is figuring how many boxes he'll need.

Montreal: Bitterly cold. Going out for BF --- well lunch. Well, if it is lunch, there is soup ready that I made yesterday! I would, however, like a room that is at least 60F, not the 49 it was when I came down a short while ago. The BR is warm! May be where I spend the day.

Yes, Maggie, I do wish for this house to be sold. The one in Bancroft is so much better but too far for R. I suspect even that might be cool at minus 35C! But over 49F!

Charmion- ah yes, the joys of an old, poorly built house. We know it well! Congratulations on one more nasty job completed.

Today warmed to about 65o so I wrapped up the two strings woven through the juniper and cut a length of cardboard to use for wrapping the two strings of different types of lights that were on the front porch. The wreath that I'd completely forgotten is now also put away and I've disassembled the macrame basket that used to have lights wrapped around the hemp cords and blinked various patterns or glowed and dimmed until two of the colors stopped working completely. Now that set is in the electronics recycle bag. I found some new lights on sale a Walgreens and have added them to the basket to assemble next year.

Picked up a steam humidifier that will live under the bathroom cabinet when not in use. I cleared some of the towels out of there a few weeks ago so there's room.

For the holidays this year my ex gave me a kind of a joke (but practical) gift - for years I've had several dozen old terrycloth wash cloths that were used at the table when the kids were little. I still pull them out but they're tattered, and mostly I use them for cleaning surfaces in the kitchen. He gave me a box filled with new terrycloth washcloths. They're already in the bin in the kitchen, ready for use. The others are in a ragbag right now, and as they get too stained, will be tossed into the trash.

There seems to have been an explosion of paper over the course of the last week. It's the usual transition from one year to the next, but my having been out of sorts for several days meant I didn't attend to it. Today it greeted me in all of it's glory around my office. Looks like it's a day of shredding and filing.

Charmion, that door sounds like a smallish nightmare - does it end up looking like a normal doorway after all of those shims were put in?

65F sounds heavenly! Forecast is for 32F at least one day soon. I need to check on snow conditions - and icy road conditions, in hopes of getting back to Beaver SOON! Before the snows start again. Emailed next door neighbour to, please, check the bathroom. If pipes break, pump could pump until it burns out - gallons of water flooding the house.... A major clutter I would prefer not to have.

Brunch yesterday ended up at a buffet: it was warm and we spent almost 2 hours eating and eating. At $12.99/each, it was well worth it and yummy. I only ingested veggies and protein until 2 small cake squares for dessert. The house was still cold but we ingested enough calories to cope. I ingested enough to go to bed with a book, after falling asleep downstairs with coat and hat on - ah warmth! And was able to cook porridge for BF this am; the house still 52F!

I have had to accept that plants at the mill and some at Beaver are probably history (category of brain de-clutter).

It is supposed to be warming today but no sign of it yet in here. Guess I need to go back upstairs with my book - or wrap in a quilt.

Several items on eBay sold this weekend; it seems that when they are forced to stay indoors people shop online. I need to get more stuff listed while it's still cold outside. It's nice to send these things to a new home and see the shrinking pile of boxes on my bench in the sunroom.

After two weeks close to home I did some running around today; a trip to the airport, personal errands, and shopping. My fitness routine will start up again next week with returning to exercise classes (hopefully the coughing will have cleared up). I visited a favorite thrift store and found an item for eBay and one for me.

I have done some more paper filing and while organizing my computer desk I dug out the previous set of speakers to replace the poor results I get from the built-in monitor speakers. That about does me in for the day, this cold hasn't completely lifted yet.

I signed up for a year of personal training at the Goodlife Fitness gym here, at no little cost. While I sign on the dotted line and mentally add the price to our burgeoning monthly budget, I mentally castigate myself for lacking the willpower to do the workouts on my own, like the wiry seniors and buff young people I see routinely on the gym floor. But then I tell myself -- sternly -- that the trainer not only prevents me from hurting myself, as I have done in the past, but also ensures that I get my arse to the gym in the first place, and that I do the exercises I don't like as well as the ones I don't mind. (I can't honestly say that I like any of them.)

So much of the fitness industry's rhetoric is about finding something you love to do, or find amusing ("fun"!), but when I'm honest I have to admit that the activity I like best is sitting and reading, followed closely by doing the New York Times crossword puzzle. In third place is cooking. None of these pass-times does a darn thing for my cardiac efficiency or the capability of my waning musculature. Damn it.

It has just finished snowing after two days of accumulation, and the temperature is hovering around the freezing point. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and Thursday, which means that the highway from Stratford to Kitchener will be quite unpleasant when I set out on my monthly pilgrimage to the doctor for my dose of the magic anti-asthma drug. The GPS always directs me to the county road that parallels the highway a few kilometers to the north, but in foul weather that is a terrible idea; the last time I took it going east, the wake from a west-bound farm truck doing no more than the speed limit literally covered my windshield with slush. The heavier highway traffic will have cleared most of the crud off the asphalt by the time I leave home, so the extra driving time the highway route requires will pay for itself in stress reduction.

A good friend on mine found a Baltimore, Maryland gym program that has some neat features i can see spreading thru the US retired-folks marketplace. Maybe Canada has these here and there, too.

As I understand her reportage thru my own envy, the first signup period includes physical-therapy-level trainers to assess what FITNESS workouts-- not PT routines-- are possible as the new member's gentle and DOABLE starting point. It's a 60 or 90-day program with many incentives to come 2-4 days/week and form the habit.

Then, there's a huge discount on a second, ongoing membership on the other side of the facility-- which looks more like most gyms most folks start with and then fail to keep up with.... group work, classes, self-led rotation thru strength/cardiovascular machines-- the whole candy shop with staff to facilitate machine use... and the option to get back with your 1st trainer anytime you want their tweaking.

The idea is that max help at startup can train we brilliant retirees to have fun NOT hurting ourselves.

My friend and her much-more-challenged roommate are having a ball now, having graduated to that 2nd level's harder machines and colder pools.

And this theory of fitness marketing seems to be percolating into the Ohio Y near the house we hope to get into fulltime (before we 'decrep' our way into more restrictive levels of senior living).

Now the big advantage there, cost-wise, is that Y memberships are adjusted for income. Yeah baby! The local Y pool is great (I have used it every Ohio vacay), they have a great basement full of strength machines plus main level cardio with windows and... wait for it....

Let's see... I left PA Saturday in subzero/windchill hell, and had some road budget hiccups causing my planned overnight stop to come an hour earlier than planned, at a cushier known motel where I was forced to sleep in and take Newbie to the inside-hallways on site Mexican restaurant for further svc dog training. They remembered me and fed/watered her as well.

When I got back on the road I drove thru the Sharon Pipeline section of 80, which is totally owned by the semi's needing to change lanes fast and dangerous to "swing" the hills surrounding that areas multiple, intersecting truck routes. The wind had gone but it had left the ditches full of tipped-over and broken semi's. I was grateful for that inner voice insisting I not push thru the Pipeline to reach my planned motel!!!

Having NOT put away everything in the Ohio house to welcome myself back with a tidied magazine layout, I had zero confusion upon entry-- and feel like I never left. The first night I could have sworn Hardi was right here with me-- he must have been praying while missing me again. Newbie likewise settled right in, first night. It has usually taken me several days to adjust my mind.

So I've had a very productive few days here. Hardi loaded what I'd packed in such a way that I had only one small bag, my heavy purse, and the dog to unload upon arrival thru the frozen slush blocking the front door. I'd left a lot more food in the freezer and pantry than remembered-- dinner on hand and brekky to thaw. No need to shop thru icy roads.

The next morning (Monday), I found the snowboots here, got the garage unlocked, moved the jam-packed car into it, and brought one more bag in (meds). And slept a bunch more.

Ydy (Tuesday), was given to haircut (goodbye old styles), doc appt prep (paperwork), dog meds refill picked up, two bags' essential groceries-- no room in still-loaded car! Jammed to ceiling! And phone calls to restart sociopolitical stuff from the fall. I planted the paperwhites I'd left myself in the fridge, using up gravel I'd also left-- in pretty glass tumblers I'd found in November in the garage..... more napping....

Tdy was the actual doc appt (they OKd Newbie coming next time), MY meds picked up, and a toenail trim for Newbie at the enormous kennel where they know her, on sight, by name. Then before my new cold's fever could catch me, I 'girl-power'-unloaded 2/3 of the car into garage space cleared in November, and was able to catch the 12-year-old neighbor getting off the bus for muscling the cargo over the next few days, during the anticipated Friday snowstorm. I brought in one strategic armload.

That leaves tomorrow (Thursday) to fill the car back up w groceries and dog food, bringing in only what must come in, tmrw-- a lot can sit in the car for me to bring in gradually, in my snow boots.

Till then, the thaw and sunshine between snowstorms here has shown me a good look at my thriving, sleeping gardens.

I can mostly only skim the thread to see everyone's great progress: GogogoGO!

The head cold symptoms are decreasing so I got some exercise today climbing stairs at work and walking the dogs when I got home. Paper is still on most horizontal surfaces, but I managed to clear my computer desk. There is micro glitter on my desk and keyboard because I finished the holiday cards and mailed them on Monday. Not in time for the holiday, but at least people will hear from me!

I need to make a push to clear out old containers in the fridge (condiments rarely used that are now way past shelf date, etc.) but that can wait till the weekend. And I need to move buckets of compost slurry from the side of the house back to dump into the big compost pile. The dearly departed pitbull illustrated perfectly the term "dogged" in her pursuit of food, even digging deep into the compost. The other two have a typical dog-like interest, but I can police dog poop from the yard into a bucket, cover it over with water for a few minutes then pour that dog-dropping tea over the compost and they have no more interest in eating anything in there. It didn't always work with the pitbull.

Susan, that fitness program sounds organic and welcoming. Does it have a name? I'd like to look at the program and see if they are affiliated anywhere else.

Hi, Susan wysiwyg: I have been on the gym routine for many years now, and Himself is less than a year out of the army and very fit and well, so we don't need either the assessment service you describe, or the specialized facilities -- which is a good thing, since Stratford has nothing of that sort. In fact, I doubt that we would find anything like that outside a hospital or rehab centre, where admission would require a doctor's referral.

The habits in question are well formed, but my attitudes remain unreconstructed. Way down in the heart of me, I am just as lazy as ever, and my child self continues to whine and complain at the requirement to get off my arse, pack my gym bag, assume the habiliments of the great outdoors (in January, a significant barrier), and actually GO TO THE EFFING GYM. When I get there, I play all manner of tricks on myself to complete my self-appointed tasks: row just 5,000 metres and you can quit; keep trotting until the treadmill counter says you have worked off your breakfast; etc., etc. I am way too old to learn to love what I have to do at the gym, so I have to make do with the knowledge that it is good for me, which -- as you know -- is not always enough to overcome the frailty of a slothful soul.

That said, I can at least say I am a "tidy person" as described in the article you referred us to. I do all those five things, so I guess I could be worse.

Lol, Charmion; that kind of gym is also designed with exactly the motivation you're blaming yourself for not having, but yes I agree that if you're generally tidy you're probably head and shoulders above many of us on that account!

I'm selectively tidy - some rooms are in much better shape consistently than others. I can fix a meal at the spur of the moment and not worry about the cleanliness of the kitchen and work surfaces or materials, but you're liable to find dust in a number of other rooms that are somewhat neglected.

If I have a tax refund this year it is tentatively going to cover the cost of the ceramic tiles I want to put down in the hall bathroom. The trouble with tax-time is that if there is a refund, some major appliance gets it into it's tiny machine brain to die or need a major repair, messing up any plans. I'm thinking it might be time to actually sign up for one of those home shield insurance accounts - most of the appliances in the house are upwards of 15+ years old.

There were some great sized and shaped boxes in the recycle bin at work today that came home with me, though right now the state of the sunroom is such that boxes seem the last thing I need to stock up on. It's the variety of sizes and shapes that I try to keep in stock. This weekend I'll flatten and store them in a cabinet I use to organize them by size.

Three full bags of children's books, 2 bags of children's clothing and a bag of shoes delivered to Goodwill today. Two bags of clothes in especially excellent condition delivered to a co-worker with 2 nephews in need. The smile on my coworker's face was priceless. <3

I have a 3 day weekend ahead.....as usual, I have lots of things I want to get done but I'll just wait and see where the day directs me. :)

I put in a very full week and am happy to be home with Oatie snoring on the couch and Jeremiah upstairs playing "The Fight Song" on his guitar and singing his little heart out.

*Big, happy, contented sigh*

Have a great week everybody!

Michelle

PS. The temperature at 6:30am was 52 degrees, by 1:30 it was 62 degrees.....and predictions for tomorrow say 12. LOL Craziness! Like the moon phases, I think these extreme weather swings have a very large effect on behavior.

I also have three days off, and after a week of not doing much due to recovering from a virus, and the virus itself the week before, I have a lot of catching up to do. And the week before that the weather didn't help, it was so cold, so I'm way behind on a whole bunch of chores.

Yesterday the temperature was in the 50s, this morning it was again in the mid-20s and enough wind to make the walk into my building at work really painful. Last year I think we had one really cold day all winter.

This evening I've sorted a lot of paper, shredding some and recycling most. I've also filed some as I've uncovered notes for several projects that were buried in the stacks. Some have been moved to the appropriate part of the house (shopping lists on the kitchen counter, notes for eBay in the sunroom, etc.) The rest will wait till tomorrow, when I start again.

Today I can see progress from my work yesterday, but it has reached the point where I must go outside (it has been very cold here again lately) to muck about with the compost (empty bins at the side of the house into the pile in the back of the yard) and haul a large bag of glass and plastic and a large basket of paper over to the city recycle bins. That way I make room for myself to finish emptying out the fridge and to continue emptying paper out of my office.

It is also the day to flatten boxes. That act alone will free up many cubic feet of space. I'll pick a few that fit specific eBay projects now and flatten the rest. I have a place to store them flat, but I can't reach it till I flatten everything in the path.

Dorothy, where do you find yourself today? Last week you were in Montreal hoping to get out to Beaver soon. Did you manage that, and is there water (no burst pipes), heat, and a wifi signal?

With expeditious kid help, the car is now unloaded (mostly into the house), and I have opened and rough-sorted boxes' contents towards their destination rooms. Along with groceries awaiting their pantry destinations, these all flow towards their spots as I pass them, and in this one-story house it's easy to keep moving; this morning I felt terminally un-tidy-able (and ooky from antibiotics), but already it's looking sane here.

I think "selectively tidy" may be different from "serially tidy" which this place really is. It's a rhythm reflecting that real ppl live in houses, living organically messy lives. It's all good. I guess actually I'm doing both-- there's that curtain dividing off the BR areas from the public mtg spaces..

I would also observe that decluttering is different for retired folks. Those of you still employed with paychecks have different challenges than those faced with retired/partly creaky schedules and bones-- we have time but not always capacity. I hoped the lessons I'd learned 10 years ago would serve me well, now. ... but AFGO. ;-)

One ginormous box left, too big/busted to tote-- but a smaller box, for fetching some of contents at a time, is ready and waiting for a warmer spell.

And I'm sorry-- but it was hilarious seeing how 4" of snow are a big deal here. Decrepit I may be, but I guess me and Newbie are northern-hardened, cuz it was not so bad to deal with after the driveway was plowed by the mow/blow/snow service. I shoveled to the garage, being old enough to have set the shovel handy before the brief blizzard.

Basic picking up happened in spurts here today but far better was the hours of ukulele playing, some with Jeremiah playing along on his guitar (I think it's SO cool that he can play along...his collection of chords is becoming impressive) and then a few more hours of reading (Currently reading "Endurance" by Scott Kelly....I'm am freakishly attracted to all things related the International Space Station) and just plain old family time.

It was a good day to do lots of nothing more than hang out in jeans, a t-shirt and slippers, doing whatever the heart dictated. :)

Today I am working on one of the bookshelves that is 7 feet tall. I have only attempted to get through 2 shelves. One of those shelves was full of medical paperwork for when I was going through chemo. Tomorrow I celebrate 8 years of being cancer free and I have decided that I don't need that paperwork anymore. Looking through it makes me cry and there is no earthly reason why I need all that. I kept a few select books that were helpful, the book that Maggie made me (a treasured item), the video I made of my journey, a copy of the speech I have given when asked to be the speaker at a few Relays for Life, a Relay for Life calendar that has my and Jeremiah's photo in it along with a favorite quote and a book published by Georgia Ovarian Cancer Alliance that has my written story and photo. I did keep (and it has been tucked away for years now and NOT on the bookshelf) all the cards full of love that I received during that time.

I have also removed several books that just aren't being used here and I'd much rather have the space than the books. One shelf is binders of neatly organized and divided into categories.

It doesn't sound like much but it took some time and I dusted as I went through. Also, I have all my favorite books together on one spot. Looks and feels good.

So it's been a busy day here. In addition to the stuff I posted previously, I got all the Christmas things put away. The tree has been down since the day after Christmas as it was getting droopy despite daily fresh water.....guess that's what happens when you get your tree early and have very dry heat!!! Anyway....the nativities are all packed up until next year and the garlands, Santa items, angels, etc. I love Christmas and all the decorations but I equally love when it's all put away and all the surfaces are empty (for the time being..LOL).

It sounds like you kept the best memories, Michelle, and there's a lot that could be added to that book, all good stuff. ❤

Today I did the work on the compost, wheel-barrowing two five-gallon kitchen waste buckets back to the pile that has a heavy-duty plastic frame holding in the contents (to keep the dogs out of anything that still smells tempting). I also did a deep purge in the fridge; sauces past shelf dates, crystallized jelly, ancient pickles, things that were in plain sight and totally forgotten. This evening I went through the side-by-side freezer for oddball frozen things that will never get used (like ancient chicken backs, frost-burned veggies, old plastic bags of frozen herbs, etc.), and that's my last thing this evening because I'm putting a heavy duty contractor bag out at the curb tomorrow with all of the things that can't go in the compost. (When I took a bucket of the veggies to the compost I heard something rustling around in the brush behind the fence. This will probably give the wildlife something to poach out of the bin when the dogs aren't looking.)

We spent a happy weekend turning out all our wardrobes, cupboards and drawers, and sorting out all the clothes we no longer need or wear, and all the tins of food that are in date but not likely to be eaten.

The clothes were sorted into those my husband can take to Africa on his next trip and those we can take to a Charity Shop. The tins all went to the supermarket Food Bank crate.

It was amazing how much dust gets into wardrobes and drawers, so we had a good old go with a damp duster and some polish.

Senoufou, after going through several pages of search results I finally found a link to the 1895 A Glossary of East Anglia in Google Books by Walter Rye.

Fye. To clean or purify. To fye out the pond; to fye up the corn [Spur.]. See Fie.

[skipping back a few pages. . . ]

Fie, or Fye. To cleanse out a ditch, a pond, or any other receptacle of mud or filth.

Learn something new every day!

I added a couple more things to the large trash bag (it has a simple square knot holding it closed, easy to untie, and when the trash guys come by, easy to pick up). Things I thought better of and decided I would never use.

The weather is nice this morning but supposed to be snowing and bitterly cold by overnight. I'd best finish up any outdoor chores early and play on the computer later.

Acme, that's fascinating! The word is pretty generally used round here. It's also encountered in that song, "Martin said to his man, "Fye man! Fye!" Which I think means "Clear off"!" (much the same thing)

I notice you put your rubbish in a sack for the bin men. We have very robust polypropylene wheelie bins, (three different colours, recycle, landfill and garden waste). Foxes and cats can't get into them as they're too high and shut firmly.

As usual, Eliza Senoufou comes up with the mot juste -- a fye-out. I feel as if I have been fying out our lives for the last year, and I'm damn' well ready to be done with it. Himself is so ready to be done with it that he now automatically digs in his heels at every new proposal to disembarrass ourselves further.

I keep thinking I have finally unpacked the final box from the move, only to find another lurking on a shelf or in a corner, pretending to be something else.

Yesterday it was a large carton that once held a vacuum cleaner, sitting on a shelf in the garage. At first I thought it was empty, kept against the day when the vacuum cleaner might require repair, but then it occurred to me that it might contain framed pictures or other ornaments that we had no room for and had therefore stashed in the basement of our house in Ottawa. (We both inherited many framed items from our deceased parents, and acquired many more over the years -- and then got married and multiplied the problem.) So I hauled it into the house and pried it open, and what do you think I found?

No, not a forgotten Rembrandt, or even a neglected set of dishes. It was a dead vacuum cleaner, the wreckage of the Hoover central vac we gave up on in Ottawa when the manufacturer went bankrupt and we could no longer get parts. Dang! How did that escape my decluttering efforts before the move? This enquiring mind really wants to know.

So out it goes to the landfill next garbage day, at the cost of two City of Stratford garbage tickets.

As for the excess art, our new church has a potential solution. In Spring, St. James's holds its annual "variety sale" -- what we Anglicans used to call a rummage sale. People like us abound in this prosperous town, one of Canada's top retirement destinations (honest, we didn't know until we got here!), so Stratford basements abound in decorative items that have not found display space. So an enterprising member of the congregation, who just happens to be a retired curator, collects paintings, graphics and objets de vertu and organizes them for sale to the benefit of the parish, which has a handsome Victorian church complete with ring of bells to support, not to speak of its real work in the community, and needs every penny it can scrape up.

Now all I have to do is persuade Himself that we can contribute a significant stack of framed items. Wish me luck with that.

We have lots of car-boot sales round here during Spring and Summer, and table-top sales in village halls when it's cold outside. We're planning on doing a garage sale on our front drive (and inside the garage of course) at Easter. It's much easier than carting stuff away from the house to a car-boot sale.

We have a Facebook page for our village now, and we can also advertise it in the Parish magazine. I have lots of kitchen equipment I no longer use, garden tools, planter tubs and pots, odd pieces of furniture, rugs, excess Christmas decorations, arty crafty stuff, no end of clutter. We love doing it because everyone natters away, it's like a party. And many of them bring their lovely dogs (who all know us) My husband offers orange squash in paper cups and I do small cakes. At our last house many years ago we did one and made £250 - not bad.

This year we exchanged a lot of kitchen equipment at xmas, and the items that work but were insufficient to the task are now in a drawer where they can be called upon if spares are needed, or, more likely, the next time someone needs a donation of kitchen equipment.

The larger city around our village has very strict trash collection rules; it must be in the correct bin (black for trash, blue for recycling) and the correct stuff must be in each bin. They write tickets if it isn't correct (after random checks or complaints from the collection truck folks). Here in our village it's a crap shoot as to what people will do about trash - I have a couple of cans, but when the guys collect the trash from cans they don't usually put them back on the curb or lawn, they often are dropped on the concrete driveway or at the curb in the street. They can get knocked over, blown away, run over, etc. If I don't have much it goes in a small bag in one of the cans, and waits near the garage until I have more that makes it enough to bother putting out for collection. I recycle and have a compost pile, so there isn't much trash. They collect it two times a week and I put it out about once every other week.

I put that kitchen waste in a heavy bag (a "contractor bag" that can be used for collecting building waste on a work site) in a trash bin, but by morning when I looked out they hadn't picked it up yet but would be by soon so I left the bag at the curb and put the bin up by the garage. Dogs and coyotes don't usually bother trash during daylight hours.

And I'm transferring duplicate kitchen stuff to Ohio every time I come down from PA-- because if it works well enough to have been kept or recently acquired, I'd rather not take a chance on a worn-out Goodwill item. And from my Ohio stash I was able to give a few items to a friend lvg a domestic hot mess, because I knew I had a parallel item to bring down on my next trip-- and a backup item already here to use til then.

It's good to have enough gear on hand for group cooking, or to be able to leave dirty items soaking when sick or all hell has broken loose.